I use very good quality, Gore-Tex, foul weather gear, dive booties, and paddle gloves. If my hands get cold, I pull on a pair of large, inexpensive, rubberized gloves (bright red!) which can be picked up at Home Depot. On really cold days in S FL, like 50 deg. & windy, my feet can get cold. I've been known to put small, plastic garbage bags over my booties in such conditions.

Keith

_________________2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

I love my kotakat dry suit. Because its goretex you dont get hot inside. There is nothing as nice a being dry at the end of the sailing day. No rush to put on dry clothes in camp. if the air temp is below 80s and the water temp less than that I will normally wear it . If I chose not to wear it I am staying close to shore and I have it and some long johns in a waterproof bag ready to use if I start getting a chill. I totally agree with the comments on not wearing it all the way. It would be useless and probably dangerous if you had it halfway on and fell into the water. Mine has the latex neck gasket which takes some getting used to. They make a version with a neoprene soft gasket that is not quite as waterproof if you fall in but much easier to used to

I love my kotakat dry suit. Because its goretex you dont get hot inside. There is nothing as nice a being dry at the end of the sailing day. No rush to put on dry clothes in camp. if the air temp is below 80s and the water temp less than that I will normally wear it . If I chose not to wear it I am staying close to shore and I have it and some long johns in a waterproof bag ready to use if I start getting a chill. I totally agree with the comments on not wearing it all the way. It would be useless and probably dangerous if you had it halfway on and fell into the water. Mine has the latex neck gasket which takes some getting used to. They make a version with a neoprene soft gasket that is not quite as waterproof if you fall in but much easier to used to

I'm not familiar with dive booties. Do they go up high on your leg? Or does water just come in when you get in or out of the boat? I've spent a lot of time with wet feet and finally got chest waders so I could launch and beach without filling my footwear.

Bosab,

It's great to hear that a dry suit works in air temps into the 70's. Breathable waterproof fabrics are amazing. Sounds like a drysuit may be in my future.

Something else to think about on this subject: We had a great outing this past Sunday wearing our drysuits, fleece drysuit liner and sweats. It was 100% sunny and when the wind got up to 15-20, we started getting a tad chilly. When we got home the air temperature was 72 degrees.

Why did we start getting chilly? The water temp has fallen to 50 degrees here. Even though the over land air temperature was in the 70's, it was well below that 1 foot above the water where we were.

Puget wrote:

I'm not familiar with dive booties. Do they go up high on your leg?

I don't have dive booties, but since you mention possibly getting a drysuit...We bought these Kokatat Scouts: Got them on sale for around $20 clearance. We hate them. They are hard to put on and the snuggness makes them squeeze air space out of our smartwool socks causing feet to get cold. Larger sizes should help that. We have found that Crocs over the smartwool socks/booties built into the drysuit are perfect. Easy to put on/take off, comfortable, and clean and dry very fast.

bosab wrote:

Mine has the latex neck gasket which takes some getting used to. They make a version with a neoprene soft gasket that is not quite as waterproof if you fall in but much easier to used to

We use the Kokatat Lightweight Paddling Suit which has the neoprene neck gasket. When we bought these last year, I wollowed around in 39 degree water (while wearing a PFD) for about half an hour to test it and I never managed to get my neckline low enough to get my neck wet the setup is so bouyant. In rough enough water, I'm sure it would start trickling in, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for the comfort.

Something else to think about on this subject: We had a great outing this past Sunday wearing our drysuits, fleece drysuit liner and sweats. It was 100% sunny and when the wind got up to 15-20, we started getting a tad chilly. When we got home the air temperature was 72 degrees.

Why did we start getting chilly? The water temp has fallen to 50 degrees here. Even though the over land air temperature was in the 70's, it was well below that 1 foot above the water where we were.

Good point. I never thought about that at this time of year. Frequently around here in Oct & Nov the water, the air above it, and the air over land at the weather station will all be about the same temperature. But on the rare warm sunny day here in Puget Sound I imagine that the air close to the water is a lot closer to water temp than to the temp of the air over the land.

Thanks for the dive bootie review. From the picture, it also looks like if just used with rain gear, I'd have wet feet as soon as I stepped into the water to launch the boat. For now I'll keep the waders and Teva sandals.

Also glad to hear about your experiment with a neoprene neck gasket. I think I'm gathering from several posts that most Hobie Island users are treating the Island less like a kayak and more like a sail boat when dressing. That is, you might fall in, but probably not. And if you you do fall in, you'll probably be back up in the boat in short order. Thus, a bit of water trickling in at the neck is not a serious problem.

- digging this up from a few months ago. I am the "tramp" girl during these awesome sailing days we have during the winter months so my butt is constantly being slapped by cold water waves...sorry for the visual but us front folks in the TI's know what I'm talking about. I'm scared to spend good money on dry pants because my previous ones disintegrated when I pulled them out of a drawer recently. But if you guys are liking your Kokatat's so much, I think I may try them.

Thanks Bosab. I actually ended up finding a pair of NRS ones (I've been ordering from them off and on for years). The reviews were good and the price wasn't bad, so I'm going to try them. BUT I will get over to Sweetwater soon to see what goodies they have...promise! I like to keep my money local when I can. Back when I was first looking, both Bill Jacksons and Osprey Bay didn't have any in my size.

Love my Caddis Northern Guide Breathable Relief Zipper Front Chest Waders. The zipper front is useful for its intended purpose for men. But it is useful for anyone getting waders on or off.

Waders are especially great when I launch from a trailer at a boat launch. I often need to get in almost waist deep -- especially when a strong current is flowing over the launch. I wear wool socks inside the waders, and Teva sandals outside.

Be careful ordering Caddis from Amazon. There are something like 12 sizes, and if Amazon is out of say, medium longs, they will send a medium regular. After returning, I ordered direct from Caddis and got great service -- and the correct size.

Well, I finally had a chance to put my Kokatat Paddling Suit to the test with a 4 day camping trip with Keith and Tom to Pavilion Key in the Everglades National Park. Temperatures ranged from 43 deg in the morning to low 70s mid day. However, on the last day it reached 80 degrees by noon resulting in a 35 degree temperature swing in less than 5 hours. The water temperature was about 68 degrees. The suit exceeded all expectations. The suit provide little warm but keeps you bone dry. In fact the suit is so light weight that you can actually feel the wind through the fabric. I wore 2 layers of thermal under the suite and was very comfortable except on the last day when temps reached 80 degrees. When I first tried the suit on I thought that the suit was cool looking, I kind of felt like an astronaut. That lasted until my wife walked in and said I looked like a Teletubbie. From that day on she calls it my Teletubbie suit...I tell you I get NO respect!!!